PARADESI

I have to give due credit to Bala for having made such a movie which, only he could

make in Tamil film industry. Focussing only on the subject without any paraphernalia

which passes out as entertainment in other movies is the USP of this movie. As usual

he draws good performances from all his actors especially the conniving and ruthless

villain who employs people in the tea estate. When film people want us to believe

that nothing new or a novel can be told anymore in a film, Bala, as always springs a

surprise and this movie is another surprise from his staple. Only God or for an

aetheist like Bala; only he knows how many surprises he has in his kitty. My personal

favourite is the tone and colour of the movie. It aptly showcases the gloom and

barren lives of the people in it. In my opinion "art" per se has no limits and has

not rules. There is no one way or limited by a group of methods through which one has

to work or even has to perceive a piece of art. Bala in my opinion qualifies as an

artist. Of course one can argue over the quality of his work but not whether he is an

artist or not.

Having given due credit to the filmmaker, when I look at the movie I must admit I am

disappointed. First his characters in this movie like all his other movies with some

exceptions look the same. Especially the heroines who either seem to have lost a few

nuts & bolts holding their heads or grumpy and angry over something. Bala may claim

that's the requirement of the character for the movie. I won't deny the existence of

such characters but when you treat them the same way again and again I am afraid to

say that it speaks of his personal opinion about women. In addition to this his

contempt for religion and belief is well known and is again showcased in this movie.

Once again I do not disagree with what had been shown. In fact I also acknowledge the

facts stated in it. But my only concern is that here more than the facts or the

truth, his anger and loathing has come to the fore.

I agree that a film is a director's medium and he can choose to protray as per his

liking.But again, in my opinion the medium of expression, in this case the movie;

should have occupied the front stage instead of his personal choices. Some of the

scenes like the doctor and the english lady doing a song and dance number to convert

the hapless people into christianity is a result of that. Though it is a fact the

scene starts very very casually and ends as abrupty as it had begun. In order to

emphasise his personal beliefs, he made the movie a two dimensional entity without

any depth. All characters suffer and cry in the beginning of the movie, suffer and

cry a bit more during the middle and suffer and cry a lot in the end.

I have no complaints about crying while watching a movie, as I had wept a lot while

watching movies like "Schindler's list", "Tare zameen par", "Pithamagan" and recently

"Haridas". But where Paradesi fails is that, it has cried even on your behalf leaving

nothing to you. Technically speaking as far as my understanding goes, his wide angle

shots are great but unfrotunately the AGS theatre where I saw the movie was pathetic

as everything appeared out of focus. I guess that could have been a major contributor

to my disappointment. Anyway "Gatham gathaha".

VERDICT: A good and daring attempt worthy to be just grim and gloomy.

The thing that I did!

When was the last time you acutally did for the first time? This is actually the slogan of a mobile phone, I guess. So to avoid plagiarism charges or getting involved in any IP litigations, I'll change it. As a result the new one and my own line is "When was the last time you actually did after a long time? The answer is "just a while ago!". It may not be extraordinary but certainly is satisfactory, may not have given an adrenaline rush but certainly is refreshing, may not be life changing but certainly is rejuvenating. I can hear the audience shouting "Enough buildup. What's the God-damn thing that you did?" Either spit it out or just stop typing. We may be idle but not so much so that we have to keep on reading your prattle." So without any further delay let me disclose it for you. But before that let me tell you one thing. That thing that I actually did was not a planned one. It happened spontaneously and I myself wondered whether it was me who did that because I forgot how it would be to be spontaneous and to act instinctively because of my monotonous and dry routine life. Charlie chapline says in "The great dictator" that we think too much but feel too little. Well, this act of mine gave me a chance to feel something instead of thinking. It's a different matter altogether that even my thinking is haphazard. That story for some other time. For now let's agree that I felt something and like all other feelings this too is inexpressible. Audience: Dey..... Ok, ok. I am coming to the point. Actually I was lucky in a way because it was pure chance that I had to stay at home. Other wise I would have certainly missed out on this opportunity if I had gone to my office. This once again emphasised my opinion that one may earn his pay-check working in an office, but can live his life only at his home. Audience: Dey. #$#%#^ Wait, wait. You too should do this to reduce your frustration. It relaxes your mind and soothes your senses. Removes stress and tingles your spine. You could experience some or all of the above based on your willingness to let yourself go in this act. Audience: That's it, we are closing the window... Here it comes. It rained a while ago. I went to the roof and got drenched.

DARK KNIGHT RISES

When Bob Kane created Batman, he would not have imagined that some day a guy named Christopher Nolan with his cortege of actors, writers and technicians would come along and give a new meaning and identity to his super-hero so profound that it would be rated no less than the creation of the character itself! If reaching the top is difficult, staying there is furthermore difficult. Having scaled new peaks with his last two Batman movies I was under the impression that he had reached the top and if he just stays there with the current one, that itself would be a success. But as the quote of a car maker goes “Make the best car in the world. Then improve it!” he betters his own track record with his latest offering “Dark knight rises”. Having praised the movie, it doesn’t mean that it has unseen action sequences or eye popping CG works nor it has an entirely new story. But it has a new take on the Batman and his story, nice effort to link all the loose ends that arose due to the introduction of new characters and their back stories and a reemphasis on why Batman is, the way he is and why he does things that he does. If not for anything I admire the movie and its director for having brought a superhero subject to that of an intense drama where the protagonist is faced with all the dilemmas and confusions. A superhero is made only by the presence of a super villain and here there are two! The director makes us face them who are on the wrong side of moral and ideological turpitudes. As one of the line goes in the movie “any one can be the batman” and for a brief duration I was the batman! Yes, yes I know that your idea of batman doesn’t exactly match with a guy who is 5.6 with a paunch and of Indian origin. But hey! That’s the magic of the movies and I really felt it. Though the hero gets beaten, deceived, robbed, chased at and even mocked at he doesn’t waver from his sole objective, that of saving Gotham city. In one scene when the catwoman tells him that he has given everything to the city and need not bother about it anymore, for which Batman replies “Not everything, not yet”. This line pretty much sums up the movie. The same applies to the director as well. When I thought he had given everything in the first two installments, he comes up with this third movie and he says “not everything, not yet”. The one disappointment for me was, although the performances were top notch, their screen time was less due to infusion of new characters. But I think one can overlook this little blip. But on the positive side, the grave and imposing voice of the villain Bane, curves of Anne hathway, surprises in the form of Marion and Gordon lewitt and the last but certainly not the least; the music by Hans zimmer truly take the movie to a higher plane. It’s better to watch the prequels before you watch this movie as there are lot of references from its earlier stories. VERDICT: The dark knight rises and you better make way for him!

My thoughts on parenthood

The best way to make one understand the intricacies of a task or difficulties of a responsibility is to allot the task or to entrust him or her with that task or responsibility. The same person who had complained earlier will begin to appreciate those who preceded him while at the same time trying to make people understand who are about to follow him. This is what that has happened to me during the past one and half years of my life. Let me give you some rough statistics to give you an idea. 4 marriages of my close friends and cousins +1(Mine) 4 deaths in my relatives' circle. 3 new lives delivered into this world from my friends' & relatives' circle. +1(My own) Lot of movie watching. Numerous outings. Countless arguments and counter-arguments. Lots of moments of disappointments, happiness, sorrow and pure joy. No movie has ever and will ever showcase such multitude of scenes that blend seamlessly, and the best part is that you are the actor and the audience! During the course of the above events I had been the actor, going through the emotions, enacting my part(pretty badly :-)) I felt joy and sorrow to varying degrees. But now when I look back, amazingly I neither feel sorrow for my relatives' death nor, even to the birth of my own son. This doesn't mean that I have assumed the role of audience and enjoying the act. No I haven't reached that stage yet, but it simply means that I am a bit insensitive albeit with some help from the passage of "Time". Having strayed for a while, let me return to the first sentence of this blog. My idea of bringing up a child is, as you have rightly guessed "zero". Let's come to one understanding. Though almost all have or at-least had both parents, our knowledge or idea of how to be a parent falls well short of the finish line when one becomes a parent. Whatever changes or steps I wanted to take to my parenting style by looking at my own parents or others' turns out to be highly unimplementable. Let me give you one example. For once I decided not to show too much emotion; either joy or anxiety towards my kid. But when I tried to stick to it, the feedback was that I am not as happy as a typical father should be, that I don't love my kid as much as other fathers love their kids etc. To top it all, how could I manage to stay in Chennai, away from my kid for so long! Had it been someone else he would come to his kid every weekend (invariably some examples from the neighbourhood follows :-) ) So the situation made me partly understand the intricacies of being a parent. The result is that I consented to buy considerable number of dresses, one cradle for the kid. Added to that before I left for Chennai, I held him for a solid 15 minutes in my hands, played with him, made some funny faces and believe it or not, made him sleep. So I guess, that's how one evolves. Though my point of view is right for me, it doesn't seem to be appropriate for the situation. You can either create friction in the process of convincing others or you can simply assess the situation and adapt accordingly. Is this the solution? Well I don't have any answer for that. But one thing I am sure of is that it depends on the individual and the situation. It doesn't matter if you are a son, a husband or a father (For all those feminists! Please replace them with "a daughter, a wife or a mother) the situations are different and the contexts specific. Respecting the diversities, enduring the unintended or the unwanted, enjoying the pleasures of life like parenthood and last but not the least surrendering to your wife are keys to a happy life :-). If someday I can catch all this action by being an audience then my life's purpose is achieved. Tring, tring, tring... Guys get up! the boring monologue is over.

Need for a Guru

Information, knowledge & wisdom.
Our ancestors insisted on wisdom. Our previous generation insisted on knowledge but the current generation is neck deep in information if not already drowned in it.

As far as my understanding goes, information is just a means to a reach a particular point. I guess it can be named as knowledge, which in turn is another means to reach the destination called wisdom. The trick is to shift from the pursuit of information to the pursuit of knowledge and eventually to become wise as quickly as possible.
If information is writing on the waters, then knowledge is like writing on the papers. But wisdom is like writings on a stone tablet, I guess.

We are in an age where information is voluminous but at the same time access to it is instantaneous. Given this reality, there is a danger of getting lost in it if we don't know what we need exactly. We allow ourselves to be overawed by it, thus by losing sight of our actual goal.

Luckily if one gets past the stage of information gathering and steps into the realm of acquiring knowledge, there is another type of danger here. Once a person starts to acquire knowledge the result as most of the people think isn't confidence, but overconfidence and inflated ego. I guess the true purpose of knowledge is to realise how little you know and until then one has to engage in the pursuit of knowledge.

Miraculously if someone crosses even this hurdle too, then he or she can be considered to be on the threshold of wisdom. It is at this time a guru is needed. Recently I had the opportunity to hear a lecture by a swami emphasising the importance of a Guru. Following are some of the points that made some sense to me.

A Guru is neither a guide nor a teacher, though we usually use them one for the other. It's literal meaning is the destroyer of darkness or in other words the vanquisher of ignorance. There isn't any need for him to teach you because you already know everything, you are that very thing that you want to know. (Tatvam asi). Then why is he given so much importance even to the extent of being hailed as Brahma, Vishnu & Maheshwara? The answer is also equally convincing. The thing is that what we consider as real is just series of thoughts playing in our minds. For example when we think of a beautiful flower it's an act of creation(srishti). When we imagine its colour, fragrance etc, it's an act of existence(sthithi) and when that thought vanishes it's an act of destruction(laya). Thus the entire process of birth, existence & death are happening within our minds and a guru makes us realise just this. That's why he is being equated to the three Gods. Actually they are not Gods but three important manifestations of divinity.This he does in different ways depending on the maturity or readiness of the student. Moses from being a prince had to become a slave, roam around the desert for years before finally facing his Guru in the form of a burning bush. Swami Vivekananda though incredibly knowledgeable had to come to a normal priest called Ramakrishna. Shankara the proponent of Advaita had to kneel down before a hunter. A saint had to listen to a butcher's words which later became "Vyadhageetha". Sadguru in his memoirs says his guru met him only once and touched him not by hand but by a stick and still he considers him as his Guru. In all the above instances the Guru actually didn't teach anything, but they made the disciples realise that they know everything, that they are everything.

A guru breaks the endless cycle of maya and that cycle is
karma begets misery.
Desire begets karma.
Discontentment begets desire.
Ignorance begets discontentment.

PS: When Alexander was asked as to why he respects his teacher Aristotle more than his parents he says that he is greatful for this parents for giving him life but it's temporary and perishable whereas he is indebted to Aristotle as he had given him life eternal. In a sense we all have embarked on our own spiritual journeys. Hopefully a Guru comes our way and GU-RUs our ignorance.

Marital landmines!

Have you ever walked in a mine-field fully aware that it is a mine-field, but totally oblivious to the placement of the mines?

Well those who are married would have had the opportunity of being in a situation like that though not literally. If I am allowed to compare marriage to a mine-field (just a metaphor) then following are some of the mines that one might risk stepping upon.

Is this dress ok?
When can we go to my mother's home?
Will you buy me that ... (err,,whatever...)
Who is that girl in the photo standing beside you?
Did you drink? Did you smoke?
Do you drink now? Do you smoke now?
I think I have added more salt in the curry, haven't I?

Just like in our school days when we were informed about one sure shot question that would come in our exams, the following in my opinion is a sure shot question all the husbands would have been asked by their better halves.

"I have become fat, haven't I?"

Kindly observe the pattern of the question. It's not "Have I become fat?"
but "I have become fat, haven't I?"

You can simply give a no as an answer for the first question, but for the second one you can't simply give a "no" because you are contradicting her statement that she has become fat. That itself draws an angry look from her and the mine under your two legs will go off.
But on the other hand if you answer her with an "YES" then the highly destructive C4 explosive that's tied to your chest will just go off. Don't bother to ask me why I haven't informed you about the bomb. You have more important issues at hand :-)

Recently I had to counter one such situation and by God's grace (I started to believe in God after this incident), I managed to come out of it with flying colours.

The question was "The circles under my eyes are too dark, aren't they?" It was a catch22 and amazingly I managed to say this.
"I don't know if the circles are just dark or too dark, but they certainly seem tired with all the hard work you put in since early morning. Wash your face and take a nap"

This time I managed not to step on the mine. Let's see how it goes in this endless mine-field. :-)

Beat this configuration!!!!!

Recently I read a piece about the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) which I thought of sharing with you all. This is related to a previous post about particle physics which I posted on April-2010.

The LHC is a super machine in every sense. It is large, with tunnels of 27 km in circumference, but it is built with the precision of the finest of Swiss watches. A 100 megapixel camera at the junctures of two tunnels captures images of the collisions, taking 40 million pictures a second, each of them one megabyte in size. A processor farm of 50,000 cores processes these images and selects 200-300 each second. The pictures create 10 million gigabyte of data a year (enough to fill three million DVDs), and this data is processed by 1,00,000 computers in 34 countries. Then 10,000 scientists pore through this data. The four experiments at LHC together form the biggest collaboration in the history of science.

Now tell me if anything beats this configuration!